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City Blog: January 2012 — December 2012

For staff devotions this morning, Pastor Steve, Kyle and I reflected on Revelation 3:7-13. In it God urges what seems to be a struggling church in ancient Philadelphia to hang in there. God cryptically reveals that "he knows their deeds," and that "the door," perhaps the door to the kingdom of Heaven, remains open for the Philadelphians and will not be closed in their faces. God knows that they have "little strength," but he promises them future vindication. These weak ones will eventually be "pillars in the temple of [my] God."
In what ...

Everyone has experienced disappointment because of “unanswered” prayers. Think of a loved one who has suffered, a family member who falls from the faith, a dream that has fallen by the wayside. Trust in God is shattered when God fails to deliver on important prayers. So much hinges on whether or not God really does answer prayer that it's devastating when God doesn’t respond the way we want him to, especially when those prayers are for things we believe are good – things that God ought to want to do.
Does God really always answer our ...

Everywhere you go, people seem to be talking about what's wrong with the church in the West. There seems to be a pervading sense that something is not right and everyone has their own idea about what exactly that might be. For some, it's simply lack of zeal - the church is just too lukewarm. For others, it's blatant hypocrisy - Christians aren't living what they preach. For others, it's Christians' lack of distinctiveness from the surrounding culture. For others, it's that Christians just aren't praying enough, not earnestly seeking the ...